For years, Hands on Hartford operated a soup kitchen in downtown Hartford that helped feed the city’s needy.
When Covid struck in 2020 the soup kitchen shut down for a time and reopened last year in a new space at 55 Bartholomew Ave., near the Parkville neighborhood, as a pay-what-you-can cafe, Gather55.
Inspired by innovative soup kitchen programs offered in other large cities, the cafe operates as a participatory restaurant where customers can pay whatever they are able for meals in return for volunteering at the eatery.
“During the day we run a participation model restaurant where folks can come to eat and make a minimum contribution of $2 and volunteer for half an hour in the restaurant in return for their meal, or they can pay the full menu price of the meal,” says Molly Reynolds, manager at Gather55.
At night, the restaurant transforms from a casual lunch and breakfast cafe into an upscale restaurant that offers full-course meals with the help of a rotating host of professional chefs from Connecticut who volunteer monthly to develop the menus. The guest chef for October will be Alejandro Leiva from Terrano Restaurant in Hartford.
Gather55, Molly says, is designed to bring together people of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. The restaurant’s dinner menus offer your choice of two or three course prix-fixe meals with a certain number of seats set aside for customers who can’t pay the full menu prices.
The restaurant’s unique business model has been embraced by patrons, Molly says.
“Both restaurants are bonded by our mission to harness the power of food to connect diverse communities. People who have gotten to know us love the concept, the idea that 60 percent of our daytime patrons are people who can’t afford this kind of dining experience and that the 40 percent of customers who can afford it are helping the rest of the patrons enjoy this experience.”
There’s no tipping at Gather55, but the evening restaurant does charge a 20 percent service fee on meals “that goes to support the overall restaurant operations,” Molly says.
“A lot of diners make donations even above that because people seem to feel really good about supporting our mission.”
The breakfast and lunch menu includes dozens of sandwiches and meals, many of them for less than $10, such as quiche florentine, a breakfast sandwich, avocado toast and a soup du jour.
The dinner menu includes three-course meals for a fixed price of $55, or $40 for two courses. Some of Gather55’s recent offerings have included Crispy Confit Chicken, by Chef Jeff Lizotte, of Present Company Restaurant, Pork Chop Milanese by Chef Billy Grant, of Bricco Restaurant, and Spicy Potato Curry, by Chef Ashley Flagg of Millwright’s Restaurant.
Connecticut Chef Tyler Anderson, a James Beard Best Chef nominee seven years in a row and a previous CT Chef of the Year, worked with Hands on Hartford to develop Gather55. Tyler, who has worked at or operated several Connecticut restaurants, was committed to assisting the hungry and reached out to Hands on Hartford in 2019.
As he and Gather55’s organizers began developing the eatery, many chefs from around the state rallied around the idea and continue to volunteer for Gather55.
“I have a lot of chef friends in the community and they all wanted to give back and thought the participatory business model was a great idea.”
In June, Gather55 won a $40,000 grant through the “Backing Historic Small Restaurants'' program, which is funded by American Express and administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Gather55 was the only Connecticut restaurant to win one of the National Trust’s grants.
Gather55
55 Bartholomew Ave, Hartford
860-929-2316
Online: Gather55.com
On Open Table: Gather55-hartford
On Facebook: @Gather55